Aud's House of Nonsense 8)

Luka and I went to the store today. Most of the toilet paper, soap, and hand santizer sections looked pretty bare. x_x The atmosphere kinda reminded me of when I'd go to the store after a tornado hit when I lived with my parents--everybody's chattier and chummier and there are a couple hostile people here and there, but overall the vibe is kinda like, "WELL ISN'T THIS JUST THE PITS, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? HAHAH OH HEY LOOK, EGGS."

I also checked on my neighbor Toni--she's about the same age as my grandma and takes the bus everywhere, so I figured it might be kind of a drag getting out and buying things and getting it home, but she said she was okay and said to tell @vastderp hi. So hi! 8)

But yeah. I was running low on things anyway, so it feels nice to have some stuff stored away. I grabbed cat food and litter and meds, and then a bunch of frozen veggies and eggs and bread and some easy food like canned soups and these little potato/bean curry things. And an apple pie, for Pi Day. And I splurged on ~rainbow goldfish crackers~ and a little box of chocolate pocky, because what's a possible quarantine period without that, I ask you?!

And in the meantime, I already have a ton of tea and honey and cough drops and gatorade and nyquil. (I don't drink gatorade unless I'm sick, because it tastes awful except when I'm sick, and then it tastes ambrosial for some reason; I got Blue Flavor.) I have WIPs to work on and some new webcomics to devour and Robin Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles to read.

I've been feeling under the weather anyway thanks to CFS flareups, so all of this will be nice to have even if I don't end up all flu-y.

How are you doing? I hope all of you are doing okay. <3 *giant hugs for everybody*



Bea also hopes all of you are doing okay.

 

I braved the retail wastes as well! The CVS was shockingly quiet and lulled me into a false sense of security, so I decided to chance a Meijer run. On the one hand, seeing everybody coordinate the crazy long checkout lines and stuff by consensus made my anarchic little heart sing, but on the other... Idk if the package of paper towels and week's supply of Monster was worth it. We're pretty well stocked up on other stuff and cozy enough here, though! Hope your flareups flare down soon, and thank for sharing the excellent mlep :)

 

bea is a sweet gorl!!!

 

Wow, tonight was kinda scary for a bit.

My downstairs neighbor, Tina, has a teenage son, Matthew, who has some pretty serious sensory issues and mental illnesses. (I'm not sure of the exact ones but I know there's a lot of PTSD going on, among some others) He yells a lot and sometimes has meltdowns and tantrums and hits things. And then sometimes he just makes noises for the fun of it. And sometimes he makes noises to clearly irritate his mom. And sometimes it can be hard to tell which noises are which.

But! I usually don't mind the noises anyway, even when they're late at night, because I figure at least some of the time he can't really control them much anyway and also I have a fan and a white noise machine that drowns things out most of the time. And I figure sometimes Matthew Just Gotta Make Screechy Muppet Noises sometimes. And also, Matthew often has Matthew Reasons for doing things that make sense once Tina mentions them to me--like, once I heard a lot of deep voiced heavy metal death growling downstairs and asked Tina "Hey, so, I don't mind it or anything, but I gotta know: what's he doing? :O" and it turns out he's been imitating tiger videos. Because he likes tigers. X)

And it turns out that sometimes certain sounds trigger really big impulses in him sometimes. When my maternal grandpa passed away, I bawled my eyes out, and then I left a note in Tina's mailbox saying, "Hey, I'm sorry things were loud last night, I'm not hurt or anything, I just learned my grandpa passed away." And Tina sent me a really nice card and then later she mentioned that when Matthew hears people crying, his first impulse is to RESCUE THEM FROM DANGER IMMEDIATELY. <3 To the point where when he hears babies crying at the store, he wants to take them away from their parents because he thinks the parents are what's causing the crying.

Which brings me around to what happened tonight: Matthew has been really, really, really loud lately, and I figured it probably has something to do with him having to deal with A Lot, like the corona virus and school stuff and sensory stuff and social stuff and cancellations and being stuck at home and all kinds of things. Lots of screaming, lots of slamming, lots of screechy muppet noises at 3:00 AM.

And until today, I kinda just let it go on. I figure he's got worse problems than I do, and the worst I have to put up with is some noise. After around three days of it, though, I was starting to get kinda flinchy and tense, especially after it startled me awake in spite of my fan and noise machine. And, I dunno, it was just really miserable to hear--he was so angry and upset all the time.

But since today was particularly loud, I decided to leave a note saying "hey, here's my number, feel free to contact me if you guys need anything" I figure she might want a break from things--she could always come upstairs for a few minutes or something. Sometimes (but not always) there's also a sign on her door that says "DO NOT KNOCK", so I left the note on her door's mailbox. (with a heart on it so she wouldn't think it was an angry note.)

But then, not long after I left the note, Luka heard what sounded like Tina sobbing, (he was outside the window waiting for me to drop him down his new jar of peanut butter that got mixed up with my groceries) and then I heard Matthew scream "SHUT UP." I went OKAY WELP SO MUCH FOR QUARANTINE, TIME TO GO DOWN THERE, and we knocked and asked "Hey are you okay? D:" and it turns out that Matthew has been "in the zone" undergoing exposure therapy.

He has been listening to youtube videos of people crying to sort of desensitize himself to it. And Tina explained that when he was about three or four, he got put in foster care briefly because Tina was in the hospital and she didn't have anyone to care for him, and it turns out the foster parent was horrible, and so all the screaming and slamming and stuff has been him reenacting the Bad Stuff to sort of process it a little bit. And Tina has been helping him by illustrating what he demonstrates in notebooks.

And so she assures me that she's fine and Matthew's fine, thank GOODNESS, and WOW I FINALLY HAVE SOME CONTEXT FOR ALL THOSE NOISES NOW. And she thanked us for checking on her and apologized about it and I told her it was completely okay, he can make all the noise he needs to as long as they're both okay.

Oof. I really like my neighbors, I'm so glad they're doing well right now.

 

This is making me tear up a little in a good way, because everyone in this post is So Good. You must be such a blessing as a neighbor to these people, and they sound like they deserve some serious blessings.

 

daww thank you. Yeah, they're both really nice and they've been through a TON. x_x

 

thats a seriousy good kid, i hope things work out well for him!

 

Okay highlight of my morning:

Either my dear little bathroom spider Georgie is back from the dead (or wherever they've been shacked up this whole time) or there's a Georgie II

Either way they're looking healthy, very spindly. Hi buddy, I missed seeing you during my toothbrush times!

 

Today I:

1. Made a big ol' bowl of roasted veggies and another bowl of garlicky roasted brussel sprouts
2. Made strudels (which by "made" I mean I got some spinach and cheese/artichoke strudels from aldi's frozen section and put them in the oven)
3. Did a bunch of cold brew prep so coffee is good for a little while
4. Did dishes
5. Vacuumed
6. Scrubbed sink and toilet and messed with the drain a little since it was a bit sluggish
7. Did miscellaneous scrubbing and tidying
8. Brushed the kitty

Today's productivity is brought to you by KIND OF OVERSTEEPED COLD BREW GREEN TEA FOR BREAKFAST!!!

Also I think/hope that means this flareup is finally letting go because GAWD nearly ten days of brainfog and dizziness and muscle aches and phantom ants everywhere (BUT NOT REAL ONES) is Not Fun.

Also I opened the windows for a bit to get some fresh air circulating, and I can tell Bea has been in the window because she just trotted back in here and her fur is freezing. X)

Speaking of Bea, she's doing just fine:

 

Also somebody on twitter posted Brak's "What Day Is It" song as the pandemic anthem and suddenly I'm thirteen years old again. 8)





(I think this was the... thiiird CD I ever had? Yes. If I were to make a spotify playlist of my childhood, this and Weird Al Yankovic would make up SUCH a huge chunk of it.)

 

hope you don't mind my dropping in, but i spotted this and had to show you immediately

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/li...20HUjqtI-b_lp_hf9MFhrxutF7E0AwEQme5tq1D0XqWso

 

oooh no i don'tmind at all :D

also I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED IIIIITTTTTT